Machine for assembling venetian blinds



Dec. 5, 1950 R. D. EDWARDS ETAL MACHINE FOR ASSEMBLING VENETIAN BLINDS 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Feb. 10, 1949 INVENTORJ Many; Mun/(22.11%

Dec. 5, 1950 R. D. EDWARDS; EITAL 2,532,294

momma FORl ASSEMBLING BEINDS Filed Feb. 10, 1949 vs Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORJ Decafi; 1950 R. D. EDWARDS; EIAL 2,532,294

MACHINE FOR ASSEMBLING VENETIANBLINDS FmemFeb. 10, 1949 '3 Sheets-Sheet s wmwu INVENTORJ mmzu tz [Mata/ 1;

Patented Dec. 5, 1950 OFFICE MACHINE FOR ASSEMB D LING VENETIAN BLIN S Robert D. Edwards and Frank E. Edwards, Miami, Fla.

Application February 10, 1949, Serial No. 75,574

20 Claims. 1

This invention relates to a Venetian blind assembling machine embodying new and improved principles of operation through which important economies in the manufacture of Venetian blinds, are achieved.

The object of the present invention is to provide a simple and efflcient mechanism for assembling the component parts of Venetian blinds. The Venetian blinds so widely used comprise a tilt rail, a bottom rail and two or more sets of adjusting tapes for tilting the slats which complete the assembly. The tapes are arranged in pairs, and are connected at intervals by transverse strips of fabric known as ladders.-

These ladders are disposed at spaced intervals along the tapes and serve to support the slats of the blind. These ladders are disposed in staggered formation along the length of the tapes, and the slats are provided with openings through which the main lift cords of the blind passes, these lift cords being attached to the bottom rail and passing upwardly through the openings of the slats and being attached at the top of the blind to suitable adjusting means by which the cords may be drawn upon to lift the bottom rail and to successively lift the slats as the bottom rail is elevated.

The machine of the present invention is designed to assemble the component elements of blinds of the character just described and is equally well adapted to the assembly of either wood or metal slats, though the latter are preferred.

The invention will be best understood by a consideration of the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a machine constructed in accordance with the invention;

Fig. 2 is a plan view thereof;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged vertical section upon line 3-3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary vertical view, partly in elevation and partly in section, upon line 44 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a sectional view upon line 5-5 of Fig. 1:

Fig. 6 is an enlarged perspective view of one of the ladder engaging and separating members hereinafter described;

Fig. 7 is a detail view of a switch releasing mechanism hereinafter described;

Fig.r'8 an enlarged view of one of the slat guides hereinafter described, showing in dotted lines the position of such slat guide at the time that the slat is fed therethrough and showing in full lines the position of the slat after it has been thrust downwardly and out of engaged position with said guide, by the bodily swinging movement of the guide;

Fig. 9 is an enlarged view of the ladder supporting and spreading elements illustrating in full lines the position of one of such members when supporting a ladder, and illustrating in dotted lines the manner in which said member yields to permit the passage thereby of the particular ladder engaged therewith when the tapes and ladders are given a downward pull under the influence of the downward movement of the preceding slat, as said slat is thrust downwardlv by the a l tion of the guide of Fig. 8, and

Fig. 10 is a detail view of the switch release mechanism hereinafter described, this view being a sectional view through the rod 40 on line |(l--| 0 of Fig. 1.

Like numerals designate corresponding parts in all of the figures of the drawings.

Any suitable type of frame mechanism may be employed for supporting the component elements of the machine illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, such, for example, as an ordinary bench or table indicated at 5 in Figs. 2 and 4. The frame may comprise a simple apron 5 secured to the table or bench 5 by screws 5, and this apron 5 supports the elements hereinafter described. I

This structure, while a very simple one, is also a very desirable one, because it readily lends itself to an extension of the machine to accommodate blinds of varying-lengths. In Fig. 1 we have indicated, at 5, division lines between sections of the apron to indicate that additional guides l4 and ladder supporting structures constituted by the wings 22 may be added in the length of the machine, at will. This makes it possible to accommodate long blinds having more than two sets of tapes.

The slats of the blind are indicated at 6. In all of the figures except Fig. 4, the slats have been indicated as straight slats, while in Fig. 4 a conventional, slightly curved metal slat I has been illustrated. The slats are fed to the machine down skids 8, the shape of which is best illustrated in Fig. 4, and they land in such position that the lower forward corner of a slat fed down the skids comes into engagement with a grooved rubber roller 9, to which rotation is imparted through a drive belt ID from a motor, the shaft of which is indicated at ll.

A hook, or equivalent member l2, at the lower end of the skid next the grooved rubber roller, is provided with a hook-like detent l3, past which the slat slides, said hook servin the function of preventing the slat from kicking back and maintaining it in position to be so engaged by the roller 9 as to be fed rapidly toward the right in Fig. 1. In this movement toward the right, the slats are fed through a plurality of (in the present instance, two) inverted V-shaped, guides l4, which are preferably flared somewhat toward their forward ends.

The action of the roller is to give a sharp thrust of the slat towardthe right, and after the rear end of the slat rides out of engagement with roller 9, the slat is supported by small rubber rollers I5 mounted upon the outer side walls of the guides 14 and spring actuated to move through openings 5 in said outer walls of the guides to engage the slat. This action is clearly illustrated in Fig. 5, where the roller i5 is illustrated as being thrust through the outer wall M of the inverted V-shaped guide and being bound by the roller against the inner wall l4. of said guide.

The rollers l5 are spring actuated inwardly by springs I! which surround a rod iii, a crank arm l9 of which carries the roller. Ears 2U, struck outwardly from the outer wall of the guide, constitute a bearing for the rod l8, one end of the spring I'I bein engaged with one of said cars at 21 and the other end of the spring bearing against the crank arm IS. The slats are thus held by the rollers l5 within the guides until said guides are swung from the dotted line position in Fig. 8 to the full line position in said figure. When that happens, the points l4 of the guides thrust the slats downwardly to the full line position of Fig. 8 and completely out of engagement with the rollers l5.

In the passage of a given slat toward the right, said slat also rides through ladder spreading and supporting wings 22. These comprise the inverted V -shaped portions 23 and ears 24, said ears being pivoted at 25 (see Figs. 1 and 3). The reason that there are two of these ladder spreading and supporting members is that there are two lines of ladders, brought about by the fact that the ladders are staggered at the opposite sides of the tapes. Springs 26 are engaged with rearward extensions 21 of the wings 22 and tend to draw the wings of the pairs toward each other.

Rollers I5 and openings it are preferably placed at a slight angle, i. e. not parallel to the top line of guide l4 and edge of slat 6 as shown in Figs. 1 and 8.

The manner in which these wings function will be best understood by reference to Figs. 3 and 9. In Fig. 3, 28 designates the tilt rail of the blind that is being assembled. One run of the tape, for example, the run which is to lie outside of the blind, is shown tacked at 29 to the tilt rail. The end of the other run, namely the run which is to lie inside the blind, is left free as indicated at 30. In Fig. 3 these two runs, designated respectively as 3| and 32, are shown as straddling the inverted V-shaped portions of the wings, and thus these tapes are spread far enough away 4 from each other to permit the slats 6 to be thrust endwise between said tapes.

Also, the wing illustrated in Fig. 3 is shown as separating one of the ladders 33 which lies above the slat 6 from the next ladder 34 therebelow, and here again the wings are shown to function as separating and spreading the ladders as well as the tapes in such manner as to leave an open space, indicated in a general way at A, through which the slats may be shot from the roller 9.

When the slat reaches its limit of movement toward the right, it is so positioned that the usual elongated openings which extend transversely acrossthe slat and which permit the passage through the slat of the conventional main lift cords (not shown) are aligned with the confronting ends or corners 35 of the wings, and when the slats in their rapid travel toward the right reach this position, they contact the blade 35 of an electric switch (see Fig. 2).

A slight movement of this blade toward the right under the impact of the slat makes an electrical contact at 31 to energize a solenoid magnet 38. The core of this magnet is indicated at 39, and when the magnet is energized this core is drawn sharply toward the right, carrying with it a sliding bar 40. This bar slides in supports 4|, one of which is shown in Fig. 3. The bar is returned by a spring 42 disposed at any suitable place, such for example as about the core of the solenoid magnet and thrusting against an ex tension 43 of the block 69.

The movement of the bar toward the right (see Fig. 8) acts through links 44 to swing the guides to the full line position illustrated in Fig. 8. This is accomplished through the medium of the links 44 which are pivoted at 45 to the bar and at 46 to the guides. The guides in turn are pivoted at 41 to brackets 48. This sharp downward swinging movement of the guides acts, as before stated, to thrust the slats bodily downward and out of engagement with the rollers 15, leaving the thus downwardly thrust slat supported only by the ladders next therebelow. This downward thrust of the slat imparts a step downward to the two runs of the tapes and also brings the ladder 33 down to the position formerly occupied by ladder 34.

. It is possible for this action to take place because of the yielding mounting of the wings 22 provided by spring 26, because when the tapes move downwardly as described, carrying the ladders with them, the ladder 33 (assuming that it is the ladder which lies at the right hand side of the tape in Fig. 9) pulls downwardly upon the shoulder 22 constituting the apex of the inverted V and swings the wing 22 to the dotted line position of Fig. 9, thus permitting the ladder to pass. The same action takes place at the opposite side of the structure, when the next succeeding ladder, which would be a left-hand one in Fig. 9, has to pass downwardly in the manner described.

The tilt rail (Fig. 3) is preferably supported at an angle, as indicated, by suitable brackets 49, said brackets having the inclined surfaces 50 for receiving the tilt rail and stops 5| against which the tilt rail rests. Those portions of the tapes which have not yet been fed into the machine may be passed rearwardly through channels 52 of brackets 49 (Fig. 1) and have any desired fullness thereof spread out upon the table 5, the terminal ends of the tapes being carried back over overhanging ledges 53 of the brackets 49, the

end of one tape being secured at 29 to the tilt rail as described, and the end 30 of the other tape being left free.

As the slats 6 are thrust downwardly by the action of the guides it, they are brought to horizontal position as the tapes fold, as indicated at 54 in Fig. 3 and are threaded upon upstanding mandrels 55 which have hook-like ends 56, said mandrels passing through the usual lift cordreceiving holes of the slats. The mandrels are pivoted at 51 upon forwardly extending feet 58 of the apron 5, and they are spring-actuated to upright position by springs 59. The portions 60 of the feet 58 prevent movement beyond the upright to the left in Fig. 3.

After all of the slats which go to make up a blind have been threaded upon the mandrels as described, the usual lift cords of the blind are connected with the hook-dike ends 56 of mandrels 55, so that when the whole assembly of slats and ladders is lifted from the mandrels, these lift cords will be pulled downwardly through the openings provided therefor in the slats and thus not only are the slats brought into proper assembly with the ladders and tapes, but all of the slats are threaded upon lift cords ready for the latter to be attached to the bottom rail in the usual way.

The pivoting of the mandrels 55 to yield outwardly permits the whole assembly and the mandrels to be tilted toward the person who is lifting the assembly and thus makes it easier to lift the blinds from the mandrels and to draw the lift cords through the openings of the slats.

While the small rubber rollers I5 have been found in actual practice to be fully capable of binding the slats against dropping out of the guides, we may, if desired, as an additional safeguard, provide, as in Fig. 5, a yieldable lug Bl, held horizontally beneath the lower edge of the slat by a spring 62. This lug is pivoted at B3 to yield downwardly and permit the passage of the slat thereby under the normal ejectin movement of the slat guides [4.

When the switch blade 36 is moved to closed position under the impact of the end of a slat, it is held in closed position long enough for the rod 40 to complete its full stroke to carry out the operations heretofore described by snapping behind a detent finger 64 that constitutes an extension of a lever 65 (Figs. 2 and said lever being pivoted for swinging movement at 66. This lever is normally held in the position illustrated in Fig. 10 by a spring 61, and when in this position, the blade 36 will snap into retained engagement behind the extremity of the part 64.

Upon movement of lever 65 against the action of spring 61, the extremity 64 is lifted enough to free blade 36, which thereupon, by its own resiliency, returns to the circuit breaking position illustrated in Fig. 2, and the solenoid magnet is thereupon de-energized. The movement of lever 65 against the action of spring 61 to thus break the circuit is effected under the influence of a cam 68, said cam being secured to bar 40.

The lower face of this cam presents an inclined surface which, at the termination of the working stroke of the bar, rides over the upper edge of the lever 65 and depresses it against the action of spring 61. The cam 68 constitutes an extension of a block 69 (Fig. 7), said block being slidably mounted upon bar 40 and being secured to said bar by set screws 10. A downward extension of the block 69 constitutes the means for connecting the bar 40 to the core 38 of the solenoid magnet.

Ill

below the slat until the slat has completed its The motor-driven feed roller 8 rotates at such rate of speed as to practically shoot the slats through the spaces A between the tapes which lie upon the opposite sides of the slats and the ladders which lie above and below the slats. The rate at which these slats are moved is such that their own momentum carries them clear of the feeding means, namely the roller 9. Consequently, the slats then lie in such position that there is nothing below them which interferes with their bodily downward movement to impart the described step by step feeding movement to the tapes.

When the slats have thus been shot clear of the feed wheel, they have been brought to such position that in their downward movement out of the guides I4, they lie between fixed guides H and 12, the function of which guides is to prevent any considerable endwise movement of the slats so that the centers of the lift cord-receiving openings of the slats will be properly centered within the tapes.

We are aware of the fact that efforts have heretofore been made to provide means for assembling the component parts of Venetian blinds. However, we believe that we are the first to provide ladder spreading and supporting devices adapted to function as herein described, and we also believe that we are the first to provide slat guides of a nature to permit the slats to be fed longitudinally therethrough and yet being capable of having the slats thrust bodily sldewise therefrom in the manner herein described. These, and all of the other features of the machine herein described are believed to be novel.

We therefore wish it to be understood that the invention is not limited to the precise construction set forth, because these principles may be embodied .in elements of many difierent forms, and the invention includes within its purview whatever changes fairly come within either the terms or the spirit of the appended claims.

1 Having described our invention, what we claim 1. In a machine of the character described for assembling the elements of Venetian blinds, the combination with a feeding means, of a nature to engage a blind slat and impart so sharp an endwise thrust thereto as to carry the slat clear of the feeding means, of means disposed along the path of travel of the slat shaped and dimensioned to lie between the tapes of the pairs of tapes of the blind and to so separate said tapes and their attached ladders as to open up suificient space between the tapes to permit the said slats to be shot endwise therethrough under the action of said feeding means.

2. A structure as recited in claim 1, in combination with supporting means for the slat in its endwise movement, and means for imparting a bodily lateral thrust to the slat to cause it to move out of engagement with the supporting means and to impart one step of movement to the tapes.

3. In a machine for assembling Venetian blind slats with the conventional tapes and their component ladders, means for feeding slats endwise into the machine, spaced guides for receiving the slats, said guides comprisin means adapted to permit the slats to move endwise through them but capable of permitting the slats to be thrust sidewise from said guides, ladder engaging elements shaped to engage the ladder which overlies a slat and hold it separated from the ladder endwise movement, and means controlled by the endwise movement of the slat for thrusting the slat bodily sidewise out of the guides upon such completion of endwise movement of the slats, said ladder engaging elements being constructed to yield to permit the overlying ladder to pass and to then engage the next succeeding ladder to separate it from the just passed ladder, preparatory to the entry of a next succeeding slat between said ladders.

4. A structure as recited in claim 3, wherein said guides comprise open bottom, inverted V- shaped members, and means carried by said members for frictionally engaging the sides of the slats and holding said slats against downward movement under the influence of gravity.

5. A structure as recited in claim 3, wherein said guides comprise open bottom, inverted V- shaped members, and means carried by said members for frictionally engaging the sides of the slats and holding said slats against downward movement under the influence of gravity, said V- shaped members bein pivoted adjacent one of their ends to permit their opposite ends to swing bodily downward to an extent to thrust the slats out of engagement with said frictional retaining means.

6. A structure as recited in claim 3, wherein said guides comprise open bottom, inverted V- shaped members, and means carried by said members for frictionally engaging the sides of the slats and holding said slats against downward movement under the influence of gravity, an actuating element for said members, and means for moving the actuating element under the influence of movement of a slat to simultaneously swing said members upon their pivots to cause them to thrust the slats out of said members.

'7. A structure as recited in claim 3, wherein the ladder engaging elements comprise swingingly mounted wings shaped and dimensioned to normally underlie one of the ladders and yieldable under downward movement of the tapes and ladders to permit the then engaged ladder to move past the engaged wing.

8. A structure as recited in claim 3, wherein the ladder engaging elements comprise swinging wings arranged in pairs and comprisin inverted V-shaped portions over which the tapes pass and by which the tapes are spread apart, one of the wings of each pair engaging and supporting the ladders which are disposed along one edge of the tapes, and the other of said wings engaging the ladders which are disposed along the other edges of the tapes.

9. A structure as recited in claim 3, wherein the ladder engaging elements comprise swinging wings arranged in pairs and comprising inverted V-shaped portions over which the tapes pass and by which the tapes are spread apart, one of the wings of each pair engaging and supporting the ladders which are disposed along one edge of the tapes, and the other of said wings engaging the ladders which are disposed along the other edges of the tapes, and a spring extending between and having its ends engaged with the opposite wings to draw said wings toward each other.

10. In a machine of the character described, a guide comprising an open bottom member of inverted V formation and a retaining element carried by sail member of V formation and exerting a lateral thrust upon a slat extending longitudinally through said guide. said retaining element having rolling engagement with the slat in the eudwise movement of the slat and being capable 8 of having the slat thrust bodily downward and outof engagement with said element.

11. In a machine of the character described, a slat guide comprising an element of substantially inverted V-shape, means for pivotally mounting said element adjacent its forward end for vertical swinging movement, and mears carried by one wall of said element and exerting a lateral thrust toward the other wall of said element to engage the side of a slat passed through said element and to thrust said slat against that side of the element remote from the means which exerts the lateral thrust.

12. A structure as recited in claim 11, wherein there are a plurality of said slat guides, a com mon actuating bar for said guides and links pivotally connected to said bar and to the guides at a point in advance of the pivot point of the guides.

13. A structure as recited in claim 3, wherein the means for feeding slats into the machine comprises a rapidly rotating rubber roller havlnga grooved periphery, and means for feeding slats sidewise to said roller to bring their edges into engagement with the grooved periphery of the roller.

14. A structure as recited in claim 3, wherein the movement of the slats out of the guides is effected by bodily swinging movement of said guides in a vertical plane, a common actuating bar for said guides, an electrical actuating means for said bar, and a control switch for the electrical actuating means, said control switch being in the path of movement of the slats fed through said guides, completion of the movement of a slat actuating said switch to efiect a movement of the rod and a swinging of the guides to bodily thrust the said slat sidewise out of the guides.

15. A structure as recited in claim 3, wherein the movement of the slats out of the guides is efiected by bodily swinging movement of said guides in a vertical plane, a common actuating bar for said guides, an electrical actuating means for said bar, and a control switch for the electrical actuating means, said control switch being in the path of movement of the slats fed through said guides, completion of the movement of a slat actuating said switch to efiect a movement of the rod and a swinging of the guides to bodily thrust the said slat sidewise out of the guides, such sidewise movement of the slats exerting a thrust upon the ladders ahead of the slat to impart a one-step downward pull upon the tapes.

16. A structure as recited in claim 3, in combination with upstanding mandrels positioned to receive the slats when they are thrust out of the guides, said mandrels being dimensioned and positioned to pass through the usual lift cord-receiving slots of the slats.

17. A structure as recited in claim 3, in combination with upstanding mandrels positioned to receive the slats when they are thrust out of the guides, said mandrels being dimensioned and positioned to pass through the usual lift cord-receiving slots of the slats, said mandrels having their upper ends constructed to be engaged with lift cords so that when an assembled group of slats is lifted from the mandrels, the cords will ble threaded through the lift cord openings of the s ats.

18. A structure as recited in claim 3, wherein the movement of the slats out of the guides is effected by oodily swinging movement of said guides in a vertical plane, a common actuating bar for said guides, an electrical actuating means for 9 said bar, and a control switch for the electrical actuating means, said control switch being in the path of movement of the slats fed through said guides, completion of the movement of a slat actuating said switch to effect a movement of the rod and a swinging of the guides to bodily thrust the said slat sidewise out of the guides, a detent for holding the switch closed until the movement of the bar has effected the discharge of a slat, and

means carried by the bar for releasing the detent and opening said switch upon completion of the effective working stroke of the bar.

19. A machine for assembling the component parts of a Venetian blind of the character described, comprising a driven feed wheel having its periphery constructed to engage the edge of a blind slat to impart bodily endwise movement to the slat into the machine, means for feeding slats sidewise into the machine to bring their lower forward corners into engagement with said feed wheel, a plurality of slat guides, each comprising an open-bottom member of substantially inverted V-shape, said members being pivoted adiacent their forward ends, a bar mounted for endwise movement, links connected to the bar and to the guides at such a point as to swing the guides upon their pivots to cause their rear ends to swing bodily downward, a detent wheel carried by one wall of each of the guides, means for mounting said wheels upon one wall of the guides to cause them to exert a thrust toward the other wall of the guides, said wheels being so positioned as to have rolling contact with slats which are thrust through the guides, a plurality of ladder supporting assemblies spacedapart to such an extent as to align them with the tapes of the blind, guide means for feeding tapes to said assemblies, said tapes being arranged in pairs, each pair comprising an inner and an outer tape and the ladder supporting assemblies comprising pairs of wings of inverted V-shape which lie between the said inner and outer tapes and spread them to permit the slats to be thrust endwise therethrough, said wings comprising portions which underlie the ladders of the tapes but said wings being yieldingly mounted to permit said ladders to move downwardly past said wings upon bodily downward movement of the tapes under the thrust exerted by a slat when said slat'is thrust sidewise out of the guides.

20. A structure as recited in claim 19, in combination with a vertical mandrel located beneath each ladder supporting assembly in a position to receive the slats which are thrust out of the guides, said mandrels being shaped and dimensioned to pass through the usual lift cord openings of the slats.

ROBERT D. EDWARDS. FRANK E. EDWARDS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,236,876 Jablon Apr. 1, 1941 2,264,162 Hammer Nov. 25, 1941 2,464,173 Broadmeyer Mar, 8, 1949 2,489,467 Sherwood Nov. 29, 1949 

